I agree with you in hindsight it is rather funny how much trouble I have found myself in being in other Forums, for all kinds of things, which being here you'd find hard to believe. Like one of the biggest one's I usually get railed on, is "my long informative posts" because as it is point out to me, anything longer than 2-4 lines and nobody is interested in reading it, people just want a yes/no answer, and it to handed to them on a silver platter so they can get on with their lives. I really struggled with this one as a former forum Mod where they charged people money to learn to grow, but then only taught you the basics for a few HUNDRED US-$$$. I would also find myself in trouble for quoting anything that wasn't in the information they sell you, and didn't want people knowing more than what they sold you to learn, because it was seen as to complex for the new/average grower. Which lead me to publicly disagreeing with other Mod's when they would say things which goes against the books and sold information I know to be 100% factual and true, but I was suppose to keep my mouth shut and let the customers learn from theirs and others mistakes, without me disagreeing with another Mod publically. Other places complained I wasn't allowed to keep track of specific products and things, as they saw it as advertising; or I couldn't tell someone thinking of getting a MARS LED, to go look at a video on YouTube called "We Are Mars Hydro". Because in the video by Mars Hydro, they come right out and say "our customer's complained of electrical fires and we were concerned too, so we looked and found the issue and upgraded to a standard industry plastic so now no more fires". Or in another part they try to show the wires don't catch fire as some customers complained and showed the wire against a heat gun, see the coating melts away... no fire... WTF?!?!? How do they think the arc of electricity across happens which starts the fire? The video went on and on like that, showing you how they came out with a new Mars LED model at one point, but after growers complained the old model was better, they stopped making and selling the new model... When did I the customer want to become the guinea pig for a company to product test something they don't even know if its better than the previous version? So I voiced my thoughts to anyone looking to buy that company's lighting, which happened to be a sponsor in that forum, so I got a warning and the boot when I argued I felt the issues should not be hidden or covered up just because they are a sponsor. I even further argued since Mars Hydro was dumb enough to make the video and admit it all themselves, I felt it was only fair to tell people to watch their own video's and see for themselves what kind of a company they are.
To be honest I'd given up on even helping people in the Forums whether I was being paid for it or not, because I refuse to support a product and be told to lie and push it because they are a sponsor or because the company I am working for sells it. If I try a product, I like it and I firmly believe in it, then yes I'll promote it, sell it door to door, and whatever else... but I won't lie about it and I won't have my name mean less because I'm peddling junk to make money. When I came here it was only because I was doing some research and found an article by Nebula Haze, which in turn led me to the Forums here... When I made my first post, I expected to get in trouble and soon get the boot like the other Forums I've been at and worked in... instead I got a compliment from Nebula Haze and I decided I'd start making posts to help others here and there...
I've been into gardening most of my entire life, I've got quite a bit of experience going back generations under me, back to when the settlers would outline their gardens with rocks... Some people think it's because it would keep the snakes out, others have other ideas behind the reasonings for it.... but the real truth behind it is simply because the rocks contain minerals your plants need and back in the day it was like fertilizer. When the rain hits the rocks, it breaks off minerals and adds it into the soil, making the plants grow bigger. To see how true this was, I dug a trench 4-feet wide and 4-5 feet deep only a couple of feet away from a row of various flowers I had been growing for a few years at that point, they never really changed from year to year, so they were a good place to try this. When it rained the water filled the trench to the top before spilling over and going elsewhere, to my surprise over the summer that year those plants would continue to change the color green the leaves were, first a brighter healthier green and then over the next couple of years they would turn a rich dark green, in the end that trench of rocks would cause trees, bushes and flowers to all take off wildly, and it would even work to somehow purify the rainwater too because I added sand to the mix to fill in the spaces between the rocks over time. All I know is I listened to those who taught me growing up, did my own experiments to see if and why it worked and tried to make it all make sense in the end with science... only to end up a better gardener for it.
When it comes to what I know and how much I know about plants, I feel as if though I know a good bit enough to be able to help others, but for me I help others because I want too, not because I get paid to do it. Here I am just another member, nobody special, and I'm 100% fine with it... I don't even use the same screen names at the different places I've been and I just switched my profile photo tonight so nobody can link my above comments to my other accounts other places to have an issue for my comments here today.
I have longed for a safe place like here to speak freely, help others, and keep a decent grow journal of facts, information and data on the grow(s), because like right now I am planning on making some more upgrades to the Red System before putting plants over there again, so I need to know exactly what I changed between this grow and the last one in there, so I can see if those changes helped or hurt the yield and quality in the end. When I write things out it also helps me to remember them, a trick a learned at a young age in school, so I put things in there I learn which I am considering or learning about to also help me stay on track. Like one which I was relearning recently was on PGR's (Plant Growth Regulators)..
A friend I know swears by Snow Storm Ultra, it's a PGR and what it does is makes the buds appear to be coated in sugar from the trichomes... bag appeal a major plus... but my first question was does it then improve quality? In the end not only did I find out that all it does is make it look prettier, but I begin to really question at what cost does it do it? So we did a test, I did my thing the ways I do it, my friend did their thing their way... and in the end we sat down to smoke and compare results... I had a better yield, a better quality, and an overall better product in every way... now they are making changes to some things in hopes of trying to peg the points I've been able to now prove I can peg repeatedly every time... I can't say Snow Storm Ultra is a bad product, but simply clearly not something I feel I need and it's not given me any reasoning to think it would help in any way, but my research did convince me I will stay away from all PGR's!